Destiny
by ilovejames00
Summary: Charlie Eppes and Loreali Matthews meet on a fateful night. Rated T for possible violence, language, sexual material.
1. SubChapter

Sub-Chapter/Summary

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Numb3rs characters, plots, etc.

Loreali Matthews is an orthopedic surgeon working at a Los Angelos hospital. After Charlie falls off of a latter trying to find one of his books, he meets Loreali on a fateful night. Rated T for possible violence/sexual references and some coarse language.


	2. Chapter One

Chapter 1

Charles Eppes looked at his watch in exhaustion. "Damn it," he mumbled noticing it was already 11 o'clock. He rubbed his eyes and took another sip of his coffee trying to wake himself up. After grading papers all day, Don came to tell him he needed to decipher a code they found at a crime scene.

Charlie put away his tests he finished grading and looked around for a specific book he needed. He decided to put in a CD to wake himself up. It would be a long night and longer than he knew. Charlie then realized the book he needed was on a high shelf. He groaned in frustration and went on a hunt to find a latter. Walking down the old stairs to the basement, he finally found a latter. He brought it upstairs, set it up, and climbed up it and started throwing unneeded books on the floor. Finally he saw it but right as that moment occurred, his cell phone rang. He grabbed the book and tried to hurry down the latter. On the second step he fell, and tried to catch himself. A horrible pain surged through his leg and he fell to the ground. Trying not to cry, he yelled to try to wake his father. After wailing for a few moments, he finally heard the footsteps of his father. The pain suddenly got worse and he began to cry.

"Charlie?" Alan cried trying to find Charlie.

Charlie just cried. As each second passed by, the pain got worse and worse. He laid on the ground trying not to move his leg.

"Oh my god," Alan said, finding his son on the floor, crying. He reached for the phone and dialed 911 as quickly as he possibly could. He went through the questions with the calm woman on the phone and followed her instructions carefully.

Alan held his son's head until ten minutes later when the ambulance came. Alan let the two men in and they carefully splinted Charlie's leg and carried him to the ambulance. On the way out, Alan grabbed Charlie's cell phone to call Don and Larry.


	3. Chapter Two

Chapter 2

Dr. Loreali Matthews sat spinning in her chair down at the ER floor. She was best friends with some of the nurses and that night was her ER duty. So far it had been a boring, uneventful night and the girls sat drinking their coffees and watching the LA nightly news. On tonight was a story about a 12-year-old girl winning the longest time ever watching TV. Obviously, the news was in desperate shape to find something interesting. Loreali decided to get a bag of Cheetos out of the new snack machine the ER had received. The last snack machine always gave you the wrong snack.

Suddenly the phone rang and Christy, Loreali's closest friend, jumped up. Loreali turned her head and gave her a confused look.

"Possible Tib-Fib coming in, could be a broken ankle also," Christy said quickly getting everything ready for the patient.

Loreali sighed in relief, she was tired of never having any orthopedic injuries at night, it seemed that the only people that came in during the night were either sick children or dead people. Quickly putting on gloves, she grabbed her equipment and proceeded to the ER Ambulance door.

A few minutes later the ambulance pulled up and they quickly pushed the man through the automatic doors.

"Hey Keith, Bill, what's up?" Loreali asked the men while joining them beside the stretcher. She looked down at his leg to get an idea of the location of the injury.

"Possible Tib-Fib and broken ankle, we splinted his leg and put an IV in and gave him a dose of morphine. Normal stats for his age. You know, same old broken leg." Loreali was definitely used to having Tib-Fib fractures. She probably thought it was one of the highest reoccurring injuries she's seen.

"Ok, do the usual X-Ray Chris, quickly, we don't wanna give this guy too much pain." Loreali noticed she was staring at the man. She was attracted to him, a lot. He had the most beautiful dark curly hair she's ever seen. Oh yeah, and chocolate brown eyes that could melt your soul. She sighed and Christy hurried off with the men to take the X-Rays.

Loreali stopped and turned around to see an older man who had tears in his eyes.


	4. Chapter Three

Hey guys! Thanks so much for the support. It helps A LOT to have some reviews. It's basically what encourages me to keep on writing.

To yegbb10 and luvnumb3rs, thanks so much! I'm glad you enjoy the story… here's the next chapter for y'all.

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Chapter 3

Loreali walked swiftly to the man. She figured the man must have been the patient's father.

"Hi, I'm Dr. Matthews." She extended her hand. The man grasped it gently and they shook.

"Alan Eppes, is Charlie going to be ok?" He said with a worried look on his face.

Loreali smiled. "He'll be fine. He probably has a very common break in the two bones in the lower leg. However, we will have to wait for the X-Rays to come back to be sure of his injury."

Alan sighed and his worried looked ceased some, although not fully. "To be honest, hospitals worry me sick. My wife died in a hospital."

Loreali understood because her father died a few years ago in the hospital from cancer. "Don't worry Mr. Eppes," she gave him a warm smile. "I know exactly how that is. If you don't mind, I need you to fill some information out for your son." She handed Alan a clip board with a few pages on it and a cheap ball-point pen.

Directing Mr. Eppes to the waiting room, Loreali noticed two men walking through the door and both looked worried. The one man seemed to be fidgeting quite a bit. The man with the dark hair ran to Alan and hugged him and asked him how Charlie was. Alan turned to Loreali.

"Charlie should be fine. He probably has a broken leg. The nurses have taken him to get X-Rays."

Alan introduced the two men to Loreali. "Dr. Matthews, this is Don, Charlie's brother, and this is Larry Fleinhardt, Charlie's co-worker and best friend." Loreali shook hands with both of the men.

"Excuse me," Loreali interrupted the conversation between the men. "I'm going to have a look at the X-Rays and talk to Mr. Eppes. I'll inform you of the injury once I find out." She gave a dazzling smile to the men and walked back to the rooms. She walked into Charlie's room and began to examine the X-Rays. Christy was still in the room and was trying to carry a light conversation with Charlie which was an almost impossible mission especially because Charlie's pain medicine had finally kicked in.

Once Loreali saw the two clean breaks, she decided to talk to Charlie and go tell the family.

"Well Mr. Eppes," Loreali began while walking to the side of the bed. "Looks like you've broken your leg. Now we have two optio--" Loreali was cut off by the giggling and staring of Charlie.

"What's wrong Charlie?" Christy asked.

Charlie continued to stare at Loreali and slurred "You're really pretty." He giggled even more. Christy tried not to laugh, but failed.

Loreali decided to flirt back and if she were to get in trouble, she'd blame the lack of sleep she'd been having. "Well, thank you, Mr. Eppes. I'm glad you think that, I try." She gave him her I'm-totally-flirting-with-you smile and looked back at the X-Rays. "Anyways, we have two options and you need to make a decision. First we can have surgery tomorrow morning which would mean you'd get a rod and three screws in your leg. The second is a hip-to-toe cast. The surgery has a higher chance of healing and it doesn't take as long to heal. Usually, the patients who have a hip-to-toe cast find it extremely annoying after a while. Therefore, I'd recommend the surgery. Do you want me to get your family so you can discuss it?"

Charlie shook his head. "No, I just have one question, and that'll make my decision."

"Yes?" Loreali asked.

"Who will perform the surgery?"

Loreali laughed. "Me."

Charlie nodded his head. "Ok, surgery it is then. Is Larry here?"

Loreali nodded her head as she put the X-Rays back in their folder and wrote on his clipboard that the patient had decided to have surgery. She still needed to discuss a time with him.

"Ok," Charlie slurred again while eating some Jell-O (patients are only allowed to have liquids before a surgery). "I need to talk to him about…"

Loreali had no idea what Charlie had just said because of the slurring and the eating. She figured that Charlie was some important person and had said something she totally wouldn't understand. She told Charlie that'd she get his family so they could discuss the time of surgery.

She walked out of the patient's room and into the waiting room. "You can come in now. We need to discuss some things, also." The three men followed her back into Charlie's room. "Charlie's decided to have surgery. I didn't know if there preference for a time." They all shook their heads. "Ok, I'll schedule it for an early time. How about 7 o'clock?"

Alan replied, "That'll be fine. We'll all be here."

Loreali smiled, "Ok, see you guys then." She left the room so the three men could talk for a while.

"Wow Loreali," Christy said. "You were really workin' it there." She giggled.

Loreali slapped her. "He's one of my patients. You know I don't like to date my patients. Remember Rob?" Christy shook her head.

"You should go home and get some sleep. You've got a hot date, oops, I mean surgery tomorrow." She laughed.

Loreali packed up her equipment and her medical books. While walking by the Charlie's room she heard a voice call her name. She walked in his room. "Did you need something, Mr. Eppes?"

"Call me Charlie, seriously." He said, now eating a grape Popsicle. "I just wanted to say sorry about earlier. My body isn't really used to pain medicine."

"Oh, it's ok. It happens all the time with patients."

"Really?"

She laughed, "Not really." He laughed. There was an awkward silence in the room.

He whispered something but she wasn't able to hear it. "I'm sorry. What?" She said.

"I'm scared," his expression looked the same. She smiled warmly and placed her bag and coat on the floor pulling a chair beside Charlie's bed. She decided she'd stay for a while.


	5. Chapter Four

UGH! Sorry guys I've taken so long! Don't worry… I'm still here. School's been so amazingly crazy. Thanks to all of you again for reviewing. The more reviews I have, the more it keeps me going for this story. Thanks a lot!

Here it is!

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Chapter 4

"BEEP BEEP BEEP!" Loreali rolled over in her bed and turned off her alarm. She grunted and laid in bed for a few seconds trying to wake up completely. She turned on her light, grabbed her towel, and hopped in the shower. Quickly she washed her hair and body, put in her contacts, and brushed her teeth. Then she quickly looked at her CD collection to decide what she was going to listen to that morning.

"Hmmmm," she said while scanning her CDs. Loreali was a musical junkie. "Ah, I'm in the Rent mood." She put the CD in her stereo and pressed play which started "Seasons of Love."

While looking through her dresser, she pulled out her necessary clothes including her favorite scrubs. While pulling her hair into a ponytail she sang along with the CD and then put on foundation, eyeliner, and mascara. Then quickly she fixed a bagel and some coffee, ate, and left to drive her BMW convertible to the hospital.

While walking into the hospital, Christy came in also to aide Loreali in the surgery. They both had a quick girl-chat while getting the equipment ready and walked to Charlie's room to give Charlie a prep-talk and reassure the family he'd be fine.

"Good morning," Loreali greeted the four men. "Charlie's surgery should only take about two hours. Once he's done we'll come in and talk to you and tell you how the surgery went. Charlie may be in the post-op room for a little bit. It depends on how quickly the patient wakes up."

Loreali noticed that Charlie's family looked worried and she gave them a smile. "Don't worry. I've performed this surgery many times." Larry, Alan, and Don all tried to make themselves not look so worried. "Charlie I suggest to take a couple minutes to talk to your family. Then they'll accompany you to the pre-op room and we'll give you anti-anxiety medicine and then we'll take you to the operating room."

Loreali and Christy walked out of the room to leave the men to talk. Sighing, Loreali washed her hands extremely well and put on all the necessary protective accessories. She walked to the pre-op room and found each of the men hugging Charlie. Walking to the operating room, she heard Alan tell Charlie that everything would be ok. She remembered her father in that moment. He hadn't been supportive of her choosing to be a doctor. While shaking the thought out of her head, she pushed the swinging doors open and entered the operating room. Making sure she had all of her equipment, Charlie was pushed into the operating room.

Loreali placed her hands underneath Charlie's back. "Ready guys? On my count, one, two, three." They lifted Charlie onto the operating table. He seemed to be in a daze and hadn't said a word. Loreali took the gas mask filled with anesthesia over Charlie's nose and mouth. "Charlie, you'll be going to sleep in about fifteen seconds. Just relax." As he nodded his head his eyes closed and she returned to her equipment. She brought a pad and the iodine solution over to Charlie's stomach. As she put it on, she prayed the surgery would go smoothly. This was a guy she was beginning to enjoy...

Two Hours Later

The men paced back and fourth in the waiting room. Larry had tried to rationalize their worrying. Alan and Don had blocked Larry's voice out a long time ago. Alan looked at his watch about every ten seconds now. She had promised only two hours for the surgery and it had gone over by ten minutes. Don looked to his father.

"Dad, don't worry. I bet Charlie's fine." Don gave his father a reassuring smile and Alan gave patted Don's back. Don stood up. "I'm going to the snack machines. Do you guys want anything?" Both replied water. He traveled to the snack machines quickly and put in the money and received the water bottles. One he returned he saw that Loreali was pushing her hair cover off. He stopped walking and turned toward Dr. Matthews. The other men left their seats and joined Don. Loreali gave them a large smile

"Charlie was great. I successfully put a rod in his leg and drilled three screws into the side of his leg. He's in the post-op room now. He should be waking up soon and then we'll wheel him to his room." Alan looked considerably relieved.

"Thank you so much doctor." Alan spoke while hugging Loreali which seemed to startle her at first, but then she hugged him back.

"No problem. Charlie's a great patient. I have some people here who're so incredibly high maintenance. You wouldn't believe some of their stories." Loreali and the men laughed. "I'm going to go finish up some paper work. The nurses will take him to his room once he receives the pain medicine and then I'll be in there to make sure he's doing fine." Loreali shook Don's and Larry's hand again and walked to the nurse's station. Ten minutes passed and she had finally completed the necessary paper work.

As she walked to the patient's room, she drank a little water at the water station and put on Chap Stick. She noticed her lips were considerably dry. She entered the room and the men all looked up with her. "How are you feeling, Charlie?" She asked as she walked to the side of the bed.

"Tired," he replied in a hoarse voice. "In pain." She smiled.

"That's typical. For now we only want you to have ice and water. Tonight I'll be in here to see if you're ok to start eating more complex liquids." Charlie nodded his head and she left the room. Returning to the nurse's station she contemplated what to do later that night. She spotted Christy and gave her a faint smile.

"So how's your boyfriend doing," she teased.

"Fine," Loreali replied in a monotone voice.

"He's really a nice guy you know. He's doesn't seem like Rob."

"Yeah. He's… different." She stared into Charlie's file and sighed.

Loreali had girl-chat with Christy for a few hours. For some reason today she was feeling depressed. The memories of her father and her ex-boyfriend kept reoccurring in her mind.

She said goodbye to Christy and decided to head to her favorite Mexican restaurant for lunch. She ordered the usual to go and returned to her apartment. Turning on the TV, she served herself dinner and turned to a VH1 countdown.

Three hours later she woke up and realized she should head back to the hospital to see how Charlie was. Quickly, she put on a jacket, cleaned up her food, and turned off the TV. On the way to the hospital, she decided to put in her Moulin Rouge soundtrack and turned to Come What May, her favorite song. The lyrics made her tear up at the thought of her relationship with Rob. If she did decide to date Charlie, it was going to be hard to tell him what happened. She parked her car in the usual spot and climbed the stairs to enter the hospital. Some of the secretaries and nurses said short hellos to her as she made her way to her destination. Finally she came to Charlie's room. She had noticed that all the men had left and probably to get some food.

"Hi," she greeted quietly as she walked in. His eyes seemed to light up at the sight of her.

"Hi! I'm starting to feel a lot better now. Not as groggy. I keep falling asleep though, almost uncontrollably. So, if I fall asleep on you, it's not your fault," Charlie said bashfully.

She giggled. "No problem. It's happens all the time." She pulled a chair to the same place she had spent with him for hours the previous night. The two were able to get into a conversation rapidly and Loreali for the first time that day seemed to enjoy herself.

Loreali looked down at her watch. "Oh my! Two hours has gone by already. This week's been really slow, though. You're lucky because usually I have an incredible amount of patients. So far, you're my only one."

He smiled and almost in a whisper said, "I'm glad I could spend this time with you." He looked up hopefully as though he thought those words would be poison to her hears.

She smiled back and looked down at the floor. He took her hand from the railing of the bed and held it. Although it was nice to have his family be there and hold his hand, holding a woman's hand was incredibly different.

"I'm really starting to like you Loreali," he looked at her seriously and blushed.

"Me too," she replied and smiled. They stared at each other for what seemed hours until her cell phone rang. She pulled her hand out of his regretfully and answered it.

Charlie was going crazy in his mind. This girl was everything he needed. She was strong, beautiful, and confident. He needed someone in his life. No one had known this, but he had been feeling increasingly lonely for the past few weeks. He was glad to find Loreali.

She snapped her phone shut and looked at Charlie. "I'm sorry, but I have to go. I have a case coming in for a cracked femur." She looked at him sadly. "I'll come back later tonight when I get off. I promise." She went to the side of his bed, leaned down, and kissed him lightly on the side of his cheek and then smiled at him. Then walking out of the room confidently, she made her way to the emergency doors.


	6. Chapter Five

Ah! Comments! Hehe, they're so nice guys! Thanks so much! I'll be able to update a lot this week because I'm on spring break.

Thanks for the support for Loreali's character. I'm basing her off of me (No joke, down to the point about the grandmother's pizza rolls. You'll see what I mean in this chapter.). Which is odd, I guess. Lol.

I'm thinking of starting another Numb3rs fic. Except it'll be a totally different time and I'll have another romance between Charlie and an OC (I love Charlie if you can't tell). Just seeing if you guys would enjoy something like that!

Here you go!

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Chapter 5

Two weeks later, she danced around her office to Wicked. She looked in the mirror for the tenth time and checked her hair. Charlie was coming for his check-up and she was hoping to ask him out. She turned off her stereo and walked out to the nurse's desk to check on some paper work.

Christy noticed that Loreali was especially perky. "Hey, Loreali. Do you have ants in your pants or what? You're really jumpy. Oh, I know. Mr. I-Have-Amazing-Curls is coming." Loreali promptly smacked Christy on the arm and walked to another patient's room.

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In the Waiting Room

Charlie sat fidgeting his hands constantly. As the last week passed, Loreali and he spent more and more time together and they really hadn't had a break from seeing her until a few days ago when he was sent home. He had missed her greatly.

Alan had taken Charlie to the doctor and even while he was reading his paper, he could tell Charlie was nervous. "You all right, Charlie?"

"Yeah. I'm fine. Why?" Charlie replied.

"You're fidgeting and the only time you fidget is when you're nervous. And you're never nervous about going to the doctor. So what's up?"

"It's nothing," Charlie sighed.

"Oohhhh. I bet I know what it is," Alan exclaimed and sat the newspaper down on his lap, looking over his reading glasses. "Is it your doctor?"

"No," Charlie shot back. Alan looked at him suspiciously. "Well, maybe."

"Mhmm. That's what I thought." Alan began to read the paper again.

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Fifteen minutes later

Loreali walked to the door of Charlie's room. Her hands were slightly shaking as she retrieved the clip board full of papers. As she gently knocked, she entered the room and gave a bright smile to Charlie.

"Hi Charlie," she said in an almost whisper.

"Hi," he replied. He thought this moment was for some reason, extremely awkward. "How are you?"

"Exhausted," she replied. "I've had a lot of patients since you've left. It's gotten really crazy."

She performed the routine check up and told him that he'd need to come back in two weeks. She was writing things down on the clip board and remembered why she was so nervous. She was going to ask him out, but where? He really can't do much. Then an idea popped into her head.

"Oh, um, Charlie?" She asked quietly.

"Yeah?" He looked up from his broken leg.

"I didn't know if maybe you wanted to get together sometime. I know you're broken leg gives us a trillion limitations, but I have an idea. I really miss spending time with you...," she trailed off and looked down to the floor. Her greatest fear was always rejection.

He smiled, "Sure. I miss spending time with you, too. I just don't know what we could do."

"Well, I was thinking you could come over to my place. I'd fix dinner and we could have a movie night or something."

Charlie wasn't sure how to reply. He really hadn't been asked out that much. "Ok, that's sounds good. When though?"

"Uh, how about a week from Friday? That'll give you enough time for some recovery. I'll call you and we'll plan what time you should come over."

"Ok, Loreali. That sounds amazing." He smiled again and grabbed his crutches. She helped him up from the chair and opened the door.

"See you later," she said as she walked away from his room.

As Charlie walked out into the waiting room, his father noticed he had a dreamy smile on his face. "Charlie, uh, you alright?"

"Yeah Dad, just fine. You know what?"

"What?"

"I just earned myself a date with one of the most amazing women in the world."

Alan laughed and they walked out of the practice together.

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The Friday Night

While singing Josh Groban (another man with amazing curls), Loreali stepped out of the shower and cover her petite frame with a soft towel. She walked to her walk-in closet and opened the large, ornate doors and turned on the light.

She scanned her walls of clothes and grunted. "Damn it! Why is it every time I have a date or something I can never find anything to wear."

Then, she knew the perfect outfit. She grabbed her favorite, low-cut jeans that were distressed looking and a baby pink polo shirt. Quickly, she dressed as she sang "You Raise Me Up."

After she was done blow drying her hair and putting on make-up, she began the dinner. She thought that her grandmother's pizza rolls would be perfect for the occasion. She quickly made the pizza rolls with her skilled, small, delicate hands and put them into the oven.

She looked at the clock on the stove and set the timer. As she looked at her watch, the door bell rang. She smoothed her shirt and checked her hair and make-up in a small mirror.

Then she put on a smile to hide how amazingly nervous she was and opened the door.

_Haha! Cliffhanger!_


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